An online account about the life and times of a Filipino Kali man; centered on Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, discussing the Filipino fighting arts of Kali, Arnis, Escrima from the PTK Manila Pitbulls to PTK Dubai Sicas Famosus then to PTK Sandatahan under the direction of Supreme Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje, Jr. where belief in success, good health and life is practised.
Email: sica.famosus [at] yahoo.com

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

If you have been an avid fan of martial arts, you have probably seen or participated in the latest craze in the west which is mixed martial arts or MMA. This type of sport emerged from different sets of traditional martial arts combined with other forms of martial arts. Realizing that when someone's training is not efficient in the cage or ring, we mix up the stand-up striking, grappling, and ground fighting aspect of the sport and come up with a new breed of martial arts which is MMA. In the Filipino Martial Arts scene, it is no different. Arnis tends to mix itself with Karate-do which makes Arnisdo. Escrima mixes with Kung-fu to make it Escrimafu while Kali mixes with Jiujitsu to make it Kalijitsu. This is a very big mistake! And as my manong used to say, "A mistake is a blunder". Martial arts bastardization may be efficient to a certain extent but in the long run develops bad habits and bad habits may cost you your life.

To further illustrate, a boxing stance is entirely different from a Muay Thai stance. Wing Chun entirely different from Karate, and so on. When a bunch of hoodlums approaches you in the middle of the night and decides to get your purse or laptop, which stance do you now follow? Do you give them a spinning back kick or low kick? Do you punch them on the face or bring them down to the ground? Kiss and hug them or push them away? In the doctrine that we follow, we do away with rules. We only know what works and what works has been tested time in memorial in the laboratory of pain and battlefield of bones. Effectiveness will be measured on how quick you could obliterate your opponent and how many times you could do it over and over again with exact precision. It is senseless doing a number of repetitive moves only realizing that it only works in one aspect of fighting. It only becomes a cardiovascular activity for a narcissistic individual to engage in.